Thoth, the Atlantean

by Brendan Carroll

  Lucio’s face turned red at the mention of Nicole. Mark was still technically his father-in-law and that bothered him a great deal.

  “She knows about Giovanni,” Mark continued in a low voice. “She knows who his mother is. Don’t kid yourself. She may go about in a drug-induced stupor most of the time, but she has powers, Lucio. I don’t know how much power she has, but I’m quite sure that she doesn’t use them due to ignorance and improper training. I did you a grave disservice and for that I am sorry, but sorry doesn’t change anything. I was desperate at the time. I was only trying to protect you.” He ended lamely and wondered how they had gotten onto this topic. Now was not the time to open old wounds and rehash lost causes.

  “You were desperate? Why? What were you trying to protect me from, Brother?” Lucio hissed at him and then forced a smile at the flight attendant who had no doubt been attracted by their heated discussion. “What did you do with Andrea?”

  “That subject is closed.” Mark Andrew looked away from him.

  “Oh? Really? And who closed it? You? Are you so jealous of me? You could not bear to see me happy? Or just what is the connection between yourself and Andrea Larmenius? Do you think I am so stupid? John Mark Andrew Larmenius Ramsay? Did you think I would miss that? Are you so superior? Who was it that tricked Jacob into working another seven years to marry Rachel by tricking him into marrying his other daughter? You wanted me to marry Nicole first because she is incorrigible and then... then… are you reenacting Laban’s tricks? Andrea Larmenius is your daughter. I know that she is! She looked exactly like you. She even acted like you. She even had some of the same aggravating traits as you. Who was her mother? Where did you send her? Just how many lives have you lived, my Brother?”

  Mark Andrew stared across the aisle at a blonde woman in a plaid skirt. She smiled at him and he turned his head quickly.

  “Too many, apparently,” he said and then laid his seat back and closed his eyes, leaving Lucio to simmer in his own juices. This was a whole new possibility he'd not considered. His daughter. A good explanation if another one was ever needed.

  ((((((((((((()))))))))))))

  “Vanni!” Merry caught Lucio’s son as Greta dragged him through the back door. She took his drum and laid it on the washer in the washroom. “You must come upstairs and change clothes. Your father will be here shortly. Your Uncle Luke has gone to the airport to get him. I want you to look nice for him.”

  Merry did not wait for protests or questions but dragged the unwilling boy down the hall through the kitchen where Luke Matthew and Simeon sat at the table drinking coffee. Greta tagged along after them.

  “Poppi!” Greta stopped at the table. “Wait Aunt Merry! I want Vanni to meet my father.”

  Merry stopped, but did not let go of the boy. He was too slippery.

  “Hello, Vanni!” Simeon stood up and smiled down at young man with twinkling blue eyes. The boy was almost as big as Greta. Vanni seemed like a child of six or seven and looked like a young man. “I have known your father for a long time… all my life. You look very much like him!”

  “Hello,” Vanni repeated the greeting he had learned very quickly. “You are the Simeon?”

  “I am called Simeon. I am Simon d’Ornan’s second eldest son,” Simeon stuck out his hand and Vanni looked about desperately.

  “Take his hand,” Merry urged him. “It is how we meet people.”

  “Oh.” Vanni allowed Simeon to show him how to shake hands. “You are second eldest? How old is that?”

  “About thirty-one years.” Simeon smiled. “How old are you?”

  “Very old.” Vanni nodded solemnly. He had no idea.

  “I see.” Simeon looked at Luke Matthew and the Knight shrugged.

  “He’s probably… oh, fifteen? Sixteen?” Merry raised both eyebrows. She was judging from his size. “We’ll say fifteen for convenience sake. And we’ll have to make a birthdate for him so we can celebrate his birthdays.”

  Simeon nodded. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Vanni.”

  Vanni simply stared at him and then looked at Merry. He wanted to ask a million questions, but these men had never wanted to answer his questions. He cringed when the back door slammed. The other one had followed him. He leaned around Merry and looked down the hall. Joel came down the hall toward them, but he no longer wore the blue outfit. He was dressed now very similar to Luke Matthew in a brown and black rugby shirt and black slacks. Joel smiled at him and he drew back behind Merry.

  “Come on now.” Merry pulled him along. “You need to look nice for your father.”

  “But I always look nice. I am nice,” he protested as they left the kitchen. “How else could I look?”

  Greta giggled and Merry ignored him. He did not understand this changing clothes thing.

  When they were in his room on the second floor, she sighed and looked about. The room was a disaster already and she had just cleaned it the day before.

  “What on earth were you looking for?” she asked as she surveyed the mess.

  “When?” He looked about in puzzlement.

  “Never mind.” She tripped across the room, stepping over the clothes strewn about the rug and then stopped to pick up a strand of toilet tissue. He had apparently unrolled an entire roll all over the floor on top of everything else. She dropped the paper and he picked it up. While she searched his closet for a nice shirt, he found the little cardboard tube and began to try to roll the paper back on it.

  She came back with a soft, blue pullover shirt and a pair of dark blue dress slacks.

  “What are you doing?” She frowned at him.

  “I thought you were unhappy about the paper. I was going to put it back,” he told her. “I just wanted to see if it was all the same.”

  “It’s all the same.” She had to smile. They had a long, long way to go with the boy to make him fit into this world. She did not envy Lucio one bit. “Don’t worry about it. We’ll throw it away. Just don’t do it again. They are all the same. Some are different colors and textures.”

  “Oh.” He dropped the paper and frowned at the clothes. “Again? Why do we have to do this all the time? Why can’t we just wear what we like and be done with it?”

  “Different occasions require different clothes,” she explained and began to pull his tee-shirt over his head. As far as she could tell, he appeared to be a carbon copy of his father except for the slight difference in eye color. Where Lucio’s were almost completely brown/black, Vanni’s had tiny specks of yellow in them.

  “I see.” He nodded. “You were wearing green yesterday. Was yesterday a green day?”

  “Sort of,” she said. “I just felt like wearing green.”

  “And today you feel like wearing blue and you want me to have to wear blue as well.”

  “Sort of.”

  “And the Simeon felt this was a white day and your Luke thought it was brown?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then how do you know what day it really is?” he asked as she pulled the clean shirt over his head and buttoned two of the buttons on the front.

  “It’s very complicated,” she told him.

  “Like Greta?”

  “Like Greta.” She nodded again absently. “Do you think Greta is complicated?”

  “Si`. She looks like a nymph and yet she says she is a girl and a daughter,” he rambled on her as she helped him with his pants, pulling off his sneakers and inspecting his socks. “She is a she, right? She is very nice, but she says that I am silly. Is that all right? Silly? Is it all right for me to be silly?”

  “Sometimes. Boys can be silly. Girls always say that.”

  “Joel is not silly, is he?” Vanni asked her.

  “No. Joel is not silly.”

  “I didn’t want Joel to be silly like me. Joel is evil. I don’t want to be like Joel.”

  “Vanni! Joel is not evil!” Merry drew back from him and frowned. She looked about the floor for a pair of black socks.

  “Yes, he is.�
� Vanni tugged on his white socks, stretching them from his feet. “I know these things.”

  “I think you might be wrong about him. He’s a very nice boy. Very smart. You could learn a great deal from him,” Merry insisted and then knelt in front of him to help him with his socks. “Your father will be very proud of you. Lucio likes children.

  “I am not a child. The King said that I am too big to be child. Besides, children are always getting into trouble.” He looked up at the ceiling.

  “You will be a child for a long time yet, I think.” She smiled at him and stood up. “Now put on your pants, the black ones and your leather shoes. The black ones.”

  Vanni made a face at the black shoes with the little tassels. “I don’t like them. I need some boots.”

  “Then tell your father,” she told him. “Maybe he’ll buy you some boots.”

  “Can Joel teach me to change clothes like he does? He doesn't have to do all this.” Vanni narrowed his eyes at her.

  “He changes clothes the same way you do.” Merry started for the door. “Now finish up and comb your hair. Brush your teeth like I showed you and come downstairs to the kitchen.”

  He watched her leave. She would not listen to him. None of them would listen to him. Perhaps his father would listen to him.

  ((((((((((((()))))))))))))

  “Do you think this is wise?” Ereshkigal looked about the golden cavern. “I see nothing amiss here, but…”

  “I do not believe that anyone will come looking for us.” Nergal poked about in the cold ashes of the fire where the Queen’s boggans usually cooked their meals. “I will summon your guard back here to look after you.”

  The Queen nodded. She had not wanted to come back, but Nergal had grown weary of the island. There had been nothing to do there and the place did not suit him at all. He was homesick for the Fifth Gate. He missed his vapors and his pits. Her plan had not worked out. Lucius had left them and she had been unable to locate the child. Adar was obviously protecting him.

  “We need to summon Adar!” she insisted.

  “Adar again.” He shook his head. “If he has need of us, he knows where to look.”

  “But we need him!” she whined and rubbed her hands together nervously. “If the Ancient One comes here, he will throw us into the pit!”

  “I don’t think he will come, my love.” Nergal took her hands in his and patted them solicitously. “We have nothing he wants. Let sleeping dogs lie. Marduk is preoccupied with his daughter now. If there was some danger, he would let us know. Let Marduk and Adar deal with the Ancient Evil! It is their fault that he is awake.”

  She watched as he climbed the ledge on the far side of the cavern, going in search of her boggans no doubt. Plotius stood in the center of the cavern, looking about, scratching his hip, obviously pleased to be home even though he still had the outward appearance of Bradford William. He had finally adapted a bit and stayed somewhat cleaner than previously. He wore a somewhat tattered pair of khaki shorts, a floral print shirt, flip-flops and a straw hat. His skin was three shades darker from island life and his hair four or five times lighter.

  “Plotius!” she called to him. “Find me something to drink. And for the love Jupiter's moons! Find your uniform.”

  “Yes, my Queen.” He nodded his head and scurried away.

  She sat down on the bower and chewed her bottom lip. Nergal’s words had not comforted her. He had assured her that the breach in the Seventh Gate had been sealed. At least Adar had accomplished that much and his ‘stinking dead’ had been returned to his gate. Marduk’s Sixth Gate had been cleared out of any dangerous leftovers and all was quiet. But she still wanted to speak with him. She wanted to know that things were returning to normal. He also assured her that she did not have to worry about the one called Jozsef Daniel coming here and destroying her. And last, but not least, she had recovered one of her lost wizards.

  Nergal had brought the wizard as a gift. The yellow Ifrit Djinni. A nasty little fellow, but sometimes useful. She had lost much in these recent events, but she still had her home and some level of power not quite equal to what she was used to, but she had learned to travel with ease in Adar’s world of light. It would be a small matter to find him if she needed. And there was her son, of course. She longed to see him and what had become of him, but she knew very well not to cross Adar in the matter. He would not be happy with her if she tried to interfere with his favorite Knight’s son! Surely Adar had taken a great interest in the child even though he was not the ‘father-figure’ type. Adar was very protective of the little band of men he had collected.

  And there was also the question of what had happened to her son. The one Adar called Jozsef Daniel who had come with Adar to clear out and repair the Seventh Gate. She was outraged to think that the Ancient One had taken this son from her and used him so badly. This alone, made her want revenge on the creature that had caused them so much trouble and could possibly bring about their final destruction. Yes, she needed to speak with Adar, if for nothing else but to ease her mind. She would have to wait until she was sure that Nergal was asleep again.

  A shuffling noise made her stand up abruptly. The noise was not coming from where anything capable of making such a noise should be. Plotius and Nergal had gone off in the opposite direction. She squinted into the shadows near the passage leading down to Nergal’s realm. What she saw there made her heart leap into her mouth.

  “Who are you?! What are you doing here?!” she shrieked at the strange creature that stepped out into the ruddy gold and red light.

  The creature was extremely muscular. Its long coils of hair hung over its shoulders down its back and two very long teeth protruded from its lower jaw, projecting up from either side of its wide mouth.

  It stopped and swayed slightly before crouching down several yards from her.

  “Ahhh. Queen Ereshkigal! You have come home,” its voice was very deep and sonorous, echoing in the cavern and even though its hunched posture made it close to the ground, it managed to bob a short bow to her, somewhat placating her fears.

  “Do I know you?” She pressed one hand over her heart, still afraid that this was some terrible thing sent here by the Ancient One to devour her.

  “You may know my name, but it is not important. There is much to consider and much to speak about. Many things have changed above and below. Many more things will come hither and thither.” He lumbered forward on his wide, splayed feet, helping himself along with his powerful hands.

  The queen raised one hand to her throat as she imagined those hands around her neck, choking the life from her.

  Plotius came hurrying back down the ledge with a wooden wine cask under one arm. He shrieked when he saw the thing and dropped the keg. The barrel rumbled down the ramp as the human/boggan captain trundled after it.

  “Shut up, Plotius!” Ereshkigal shouted at her captain, causing him to fall over the barrel and into a pile of discarded armor. The queen waited impatiently for him to scramble up again. “Bring some cups and serve our guest some refreshment.”

  She was terrified, but there was nothing to do but try to make this strange one welcome. If he had come to talk, then she had time to listen. A vague memory of a time long past and forgotten wiggled into her mind. She knew this creature from the foggy days of old.

  Chapter Four of Twenty

  For who knoweth what is good for man in this life

  Luke Matthew, Merry and Simeon met Mark Andrew and Lucio on the steps of the big house, greeting them warmly and with great sighs of relief. They inquired after Sir de Lyons condition and were saddened to hear that nothing had improved with the Knight of the Sword. Mark Andrew was unable to tell them what, if anything, would be done about the Knight if his condition did not resolve itself. His fate was still undecided. He did not tell them what he had told Lucio. He had tried to relieve the Knight of his mystery in order to pass it along to his apprentice, but he could find nothing in Guy’s mind except darkness. It had been a terrify
ing experience. He would have to pass on the mystery to Philip d’Ornan from his own stores of knowledge concerning de Lyon’s wisdom and hope that he didn’t leave anything out or add anything unnecessary.

  “Your son is in the library, Master Dambretti,” Simeon told the Golden Eagle when he asked about the boy. “He is waiting for you. We thought it best to allow you to visit with him initially in private. He has been most impatient for your arrival.”

  Lucio did not know if this was a good idea. He looked at Mark Andrew and the Knight of Death nodded to him. It sounded like a solid plan to Mark apparently.

  Lucio entered the house and then cautiously opened the library door. The rest of the party passed him by on their way to inspect the work that Guillaume Pairaud and Merry had done to refurbish the old dining room between the library and the kitchen. The room had been closed off for two hundred years. Mark Andrew had never felt the need for such an elaborate place to eat his salmon, oatmeal and stew and he was somewhat horrified to think what it must have looked like when they opened it. He couldn't even remember what the room looked like before he'd closed it up just as the Civil War was kicking off in America. It had been the failure of the Great Experiment that had made him dejected enough to think of tearing down his house altogether and moving into a cave

  America had been the great hope of the Order for many years and yet it seemed that it was going to crumble into the dust only a hundred years from inception. He had to smile when he thought of how pleased he had been that the United States had prevailed as a united nation after all even though some of his Brothers did not share his sentiments about 'Merica. He did not care what they thought. He knew what he knew and he had spent time, money and sweat to make the dream happen; not that he ever planned on living there. It was after all, just an experiment. He remembered quite well how pleased Lucio had been to learn that the old tower they had built on the eastern coast near Newport in modern Rhode Island had survived and gained enough attention to merit much speculation regarding its origins in the first half of the twenty-first century.